Calendar pictures

Some time after Ian decided to work in Greece, I started looking at the calendars

in the bookstores that had pictures from Greece.  They all seemed to look like the one

above and most were taken in Santorini.  Surprise, surprise, on our first trip, to visit Ian,

we didn't see anything like this in Thessaloniki!  This summer, however, we visited our

first "blue" island.  Astypalea is like Santorini, sort of like Outter Banks is like Hilton Head.

Most of the buildings are painted white with blue trim on the doors

...and garden gates.  And on any given day you will find someone, usually several,

people out whitewashing buildings or walkways.



The village is located between the port and the top of a hill where

the castle ruins are located.

 

So, no matter what you need to do, you will either need to walk up the hill-

 

or down the hill...generally several times in any given day.

On a hot day, you needed a couple of showers and changes of clothes.

 

This was a doorway near our apartment - not blue - but really pretty.

When I reached this spot on my walk up the hill, I knew I was going to make it

to our apartment.  The geraniums were beautiful!  One of the 365

churches on the island is in this picture and the balcony

is ours.

All over the island there are artifacts imbedded in the buildings and

obviously ancient pots and urns sitting on steps and porches.

More to come....